You can change the appearance of any object, group, or
layer in Adobe Illustrator by using effects and the Appearance and
Graphic Styles panels. In addition, you can divide an object into
its essential parts to modify elements of the object independently.

About appearance attributes

Appearance
attributes are properties that affect the look of an object without altering
its underlying structure. Appearance attributes include fills, strokes, transparency,
and effects. If you apply an appearance attribute to an object and later
edit or remove that attribute, it does not change the underlying
object or any other attributes applied to the object.

You
can set appearance attributes at any level of the layer hierarchy.
For example, if you apply a drop shadow effect to a layer, all objects
in the layer take on the drop shadow. However, if you move an object
out of the layer, that object will no longer have a drop-shadow
because the effect belongs to the layer, not to each object within
the layer.

The Appearance panel is the gateway to working with appearance
attributes. Because you can apply appearance attributes to layers,
groups, and objects—and often to fills and strokes too—the hierarchy
of attributes in your artwork can become very complex. For example,
if you apply one effect to an entire layer and another effect to
an object in the layer, it may be difficult to determine which effect
is causing the artwork to change. The Appearance panel shows you
the fills, strokes, graphic styles, and effects that have been applied
to an object, group, or layer.

Appearance panel overview

You use the Appearance panel (Window >
Appearance) to view and adjust the appearance attributes for an
object, group, or layer. Fills and strokes are listed in stacking
order; top to bottom in the panel correlates to front to back in
the artwork. Effects are listed from top to bottom in the order
in which they are applied to the artwork.

Targeting items for appearance
attributes

Before you can set
an appearance attribute or apply a style or an effect to a layer, group,
or object, you must target the item in the Layers panel.
Selecting an object or group using any selection method also targets
the object or group in the Layers panel, but layers can be targeted
only by using the panel.

Manage appearance attributes

Edit or add an appearance attribute

You can open an appearance attribute, such as an effect,
and change the settings at any time.

In the Appearance panel, do any of the following:

To edit an attribute, click the blue underlined name of the
attribute, and specify changes in the dialog box that appears.

To edit a fill color, click the fill row and choose a new
color from the color box.

To add a new effect, click Add New Effect .

To delete an attribute, click the attribute row, and then
click Delete .

Duplicate an appearance attribute

Select
an attribute in the Appearance panel, and do one of the
following:

Click the Duplicate Selected Item button in
the panel, or choose Duplicate Item from the panel menu.

Drag the appearance attribute onto the Duplicate Selected
Item button in the panel.

Change the stacking order of appearance
attributes

Drag an appearance attribute up or down in
the Appearance panel. (If necessary, click the toggle triangle next
to an item to display its contents.) When the outline of the appearance
attribute you are dragging appears in the desired position, release
the mouse button.

Drop Shadow effect applied to stroke (top) compared to same
effect moved to fill (bottom)

Remove or hide appearance attributes

Select the object or group (or target
a layer in the Layers panel).

Do one of the following:

To temporarily hide
an attribute applied to your artwork, click the Visibility icon in
the Appearance panel. Click it again to see the attribute applied again.

To remove a specific attribute, select the attribute in the
Appearance panel, and click the Delete icon . Alternatively,
select Remove Item from the panel menu, or drag the attribute to
the Delete icon.

To remove all appearance attributes except a single fill
and stroke, choose Reduce To Basic Appearance from the panel menu.
Alternatively, drag the target icon for an item in the Layers panel
onto the Delete icon in the Layers panel.

To remove all appearance attributes, including any fill or
stroke, click the Clear Appearance button in
the Appearance panel or choose Clear Appearance from the panel menu.

Copy appearance attributes between
objects

You
can copy or move appearance attributes by dragging or by using the Eyedropper
tool.

See also

Copy appearance attributes by dragging

Select the object or group (or target the
layer in the Layers panel) whose appearance you want to copy.

Do one of the following:

Drag the thumbnail
at the top of the Appearance panel onto an object in the document
window. If a thumbnail isn’t showing, choose Show Thumbnail from
the panel menu.

Alt‑drag (Windows) or Option‑drag (Mac OS) the target
icon in the Layers panel onto the item to which you want to copy
appearance attributes.

To move appearance attributes instead of copying them, drag
the target icon in the Layers panel from any item that has the desired
attributes onto the item to which you want to apply it.

Copy appearance attributes using
the Eyedropper tool

You
can use the Eyedropper tool to copy appearance attributes from one
object to another, including character, paragraph, fill, and stroke
attributes between type objects. By default, the Eyedropper tool
affects all attributes of a selection. To customize the attributes
affected by this tool, use the Eyedropper dialog box.

Select the object, type object, or characters
whose attributes you want to change.

Select the Eyedropper tool .

Move the Eyedropper tool onto the object whose attributes
you want to sample. (When you’re correctly positioned over type,
the pointer displays a small T.)

Do one of the following:

Click the Eyedropper
tool to sample all appearance attributes and apply them to the selected
object.

Shift‑click to sample only the color from a portion of a
gradient, pattern, mesh object, or placed image and apply the color
to the selected fill or stroke.

Hold down the Shift key and then the Alt (Windows) or Option
(Mac OS) key while clicking to add the appearance attributes
of an object to the selected object’s appearance attributes. Alternatively,
click first, and then hold down Shift+Alt (Windows) or Shift+Option
(Mac OS).

note: You can also click an unselected object to sample
its attributes and Alt‑click (Windows) or Option‑click (Mac OS)
an unselected object to which you want to apply the attributes.

Copy attributes from the desktop
using the Eyedropper tool

Select the object whose attributes you want
to change.

Select the Eyedropper tool.

Click anywhere on the document and continue to hold down
the mouse button.

Without releasing the mouse button, move the pointer over
the object on your computer desktop whose attributes you want to
copy. When directly over the object, release the mouse button.

Note:

The Eyedropper tool samples only the RGB
color from the screen when sampling anywhere outside the current
document. The Eyedropper tool indicates it is sampling RGB color
from the screen by displaying a black-colored square to the right
of the tool.

Specify which attributes you can
copy with the Eyedropper tool

Double-click the Eyedropper tool.

Select the attributes you want to copy with the Eyedropper
tool. You can sample appearance attributes including transparency,
and various fill and stroke properties, as well as character and
paragraph properties.

Choose the sample size area from the Raster Sample Size menu.

Click OK.

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